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Monday, 22 April 2013

A memorial fund has been set up to raise funds to provide a memorial to one of Newmarket's unsung heroes.

Interest has been expressed in the project from around the country and from as far afield as Canada, where Bill Tutte lived and died after the war.

"Who was Bill Tutte?"

Bill Tutte was born in Newmarket in 1917. He was educated locally and in Cambridge before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1935. In 1941 he was invited to join the so-called Government Codes and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, where he was responsible for cracking the German Lorenz code (called Tunny by the British).

Due to continuing Cold War security reasons, he received no official recognition or public acclaim for his achievement and it was not until the mid 1990s, some 50 years later, that details were released; even now some aspects of his work remain classified.

It is widely believed that the Russians used captured Lorenz machines for their own purposes for some years after the end of World War Two without realising that the British security services had cracked the code; to recognise Tutte's achievement would have given the game away.

In 2012, following a campaign by The Newmarket Journal, the Prime Minister wrote to Tutte’s remaining family in Newmarket to acknowledge the debt we owe him and Newmarket Town Council resolved to honour him with a memorial on Rutland Hill in the town centre.

"What can I do to help?"

In the First Instance, you could click the banner below, read more about this amazing mans achievements follow the Memorial Trust on Twitter, or like them in Facebook. Links are on the official page